By Billie Eder
Norway’s former world No.2 and three-time grand slam finalist Casper Ruud is the highest-ranked male tennis player in the country’s history – but the 25-year-old isn’t an anomaly in the overachieving Scandinavian nation.
For a small country with approximately the same population size as Sydney or Melbourne – 5.4 million residents – Norway boasts some of the world’s most successful athletes, something Ruud said was a source of enormous pride back home.
With Olympic medals and World Cup wins, is Norway the best sporting nation in the world?Credit: Monique Westermann
“At the moment in Norway, we have a couple of other big sports stars,” said Ruud, who will be representing his country this week in the United Cup in Sydney. “Football player Erling Haaland, Martin Odegaard – two of the biggest sport stars at the moment – Viktor Hovland [a] golf player ... we have plenty of sports people who’ve kind of at the same time done really well.
“It’s fun to be, I’m not sure you would call it a group, but it’s a period of time where Norway are doing pretty good at sports.
“It’s a small country and people in Norway they kind of like to feel in a way somewhat ownership of their sports stars because in a way we have a very good system for kids growing up in Norway.
“As a young kid there are plenty of opportunities in Norway, so that’s a good thing. I think we feel very proud of our sports stars.”
Norwegian tennis player Casper Ruud practices on court in Sydney.Credit: Getty
Leading the Norwegian pack is Haaland, one of the highest-paid footballers in the English Premier League, with a multimillion-dollar, five-year contract at powerhouse Manchester City.
Haaland set a Premier League record this year when he became the fastest player in history to score 50 goals, reaching the milestone in just 48 games and smashing Andy Cole’s previous record of 65 games.
There’s also Odegaard, the 25-year-old captain of the Norwegian national team and Arsenal, who is widely regarded as one of the best midfielders in the world.
And then there’s the women’s national team that includes players such as Caroline Graham Hansen and Ada Hegerberg, who was the first recipient of the Ballon d’Or Feminin when it was introduced in 2018. Norway is the only country other than Germany to have won all three major women’s football tournaments open to European teams – the European Championship, FIFA World Cup and Olympic gold.
Norway’s Ada Hegerberg in action at the 2023 World Cup.Credit: AP
And when it comes to the Olympics, Norway is on another level, topping the medal tally at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics with 84 athletes winning 16 gold medals, eight silver and 13 bronze. They also topped the tally at the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics in South Korea, with 14 gold, 14 silver and 11 bronze medals.
But Norway’s Olympic success isn’t limited to the snow and the ice – the country’s athletes regularly collect a handful of medals at the Summer Games, too, and at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo they pocketed four gold, two silver and two bronze.
Karsten Warholm is the reigning Olympic 400m hurdles champion and world record holder, with a time of 45.94 seconds. He’s also a three-time world champion.
Superstar middle-distance runner Jakob Ingebrigtsen is a two-time world champion and reigning Olympic gold medallist in the 1500m.
The Norwegian women’s handball team is one of the most successful in history, with a medal at every Olympic Games since Sydney 2000 except Athens in 2004.
Norway’s sporting success on the international stage isn’t just by chance, according to Nils Einar Aas, the secretary general of Norway’s Olympic and Paralympic committee.
“There are many reasons why Norwegian athletes in various disciplines have good results internationally,” he said.
“As many as 93 per cent of all children and youth in Norway are part of organised sports during their childhood.”
Comparatively, in NSW, 78 per cent of children between the ages of 0-14 participate in at least one organised sport or physical activity outside school hours.
“All local sports clubs with members between the ages of six and 19 years receive financial support from a governmental grant called ‘Local activity funds’ [LAM],” Aas said.
“Norwegian sport receives considerable government funding towards sports facilities, administration of the Norwegian Olympic and Paralympic Committee and Confederation of Sports [NIF, including the regional confederations], national federations, children, youth and para sports and elite sports.”
Sports news, results and expert commentary. Sign up for our Sport newsletter.